What are the identifying marks of pewter?

Identifying marks on pewter fall into five categories: touch marks, pseudo-marks, quality marks, labels, and numbers. Touch marks generally indicate the manufacturer or craftsman, but many include retailers, wholesalers and other parties that handled the piece.

Pseudo-marks indicate manufacturers of pieces that were polished to resemble silver and normally identify the maker by initials. Quality marks are a crowned rose to denote high quality, or a crowned “X” to indicate hard metal. Label marks depict company logos, slogans or the city where the piece was made. Number marks are usually catalogue numbers, worker numbers or the capacity of the piece.

Other marks include verification and capacity marks, which indicate the piece was verified to conform to an official measurement standard, and owner’s marks, which identify the owner or purchaser of the piece by name, initials or family seal.